1 / 6 GAP I: Design & Typography GSAPP Spring 2015, A4716 - PDF document

1 / 6 GAP I: Design & Typography GSAPP Spring 2015, A4716 Buell 300 N Wednesdays 9am–12pm Yoonjai Choi yc2940@columbia.edu DESCRIPTION Architecture starts and ends as graphic design. The Graphic Architecture Project (GAP) is a way of thinking about the intersection of the fmat and the deep. There are 3 discrete courses offered: GAP I: Design & Typography (Yoonjai Choi) GAP II: Designing Images (Terri Chiao) GAP III: Graphic Narratives (Michael Rock & Oana Stanescu) In this class we examine, in minute detail, the visual rhetoric employed to convey design concepts. Typography is fundamentally the procedure of arranging type, but it can also be the particular art of traversing meaning with form. In addition to developing a general typographic fmuency, we will consider the visual tone of how messages are conveyed, and explore ways to appropriately control and manipulate that tone through typography. We also investigate conceptual issues through a series of extremely practical assignments drawing on historical standards as well as contemporary examples of graphic design. Our ultimate goal is to establish a shared verbal and visual lexicon with which we can create, and critique, graphic work and to align conceptual intent with visual results. Initially, we will focus on basic composition and classical typography. We will examine the details of letterforms and investigate type design and typesetting from a historical and visual perspective. We will look at the composition of graphic space using both typography and basic forms. This part will consist mainly of shorter assignments. As the problems are iterative and designed to build from one week to the next, it is essential that you complete each in the given time period. In the second part of the semester, we will begin with a lesson in simple but considered and refjned typesetting, followed by assignments that deal with more layered content, therefore working with more sophisticated design systems. We will continue to explore the use of grids for managing complex information and for the graphic articulation of two dimensional space. REQUIREMENTS 1. Access to and basic knowledge of Adobe InDesign: While we will give you tips and help along the way, this is not a software class. In order to successfully complete the assignments, a working knowledge of InDesign is required. Adobe Illustrator is not an adequate substitute. 2. Access to printer: Pin-ups will take up almost half of our class time, and students must bring print-outs. Laser printers are recommended, especially for examining typography. Pin-ups will be a time to critique your work. You will have an opportunity to incorporate comments from these pin-ups before turning in the fjnal version of each assignment.

2 / 6 3. Formatting: Acknowledging and responding to constraints is an important aspect of design. Students are expected to observe guidelines for presenations. — Unless noted otherwise, orientation of the page is always ‘portrait’. — Keep fjles at a reasonable size (less than 4MB) so they can be easily emailed — Keep multiple pages in a single PDF (always use PDFs, not JPGs) — Always name fjles, and using the correct naming convention. e.g. A4716_ChoiY_0912.pdf 4. Attendence and participation: Final grades will be largely determined by class participation. — You will receive a failing grade if you have more than 3 unexcused absences (non-negotiable) — 3 unexcused tardies will count as an absence (1 hour late or more is considered an absence) — On/off-campus offjce hours will take place intermittently on a sign-up basis SCHEDULE (Subject to change) Week 1 1/20 Class Course Introduction Week 2 1/28 Class Student Presentations (Intro) Week 3 2/4 Class Pin-up (0, 1.1), Slide Lecture Week 4 2/11 Class Pin-up (0, 1.2), Slide Lecture Week 5 2/18 Class Pin-up (0, 2.1), InDesign Demo Week 6 2/25 (Midterms) Pin-up (0, 2.2), Presentation (3) Week 7 3/4 (Midterms) Presentation (3), Pin-up (4) Week 8 3/11 Class Pin-up (4, 5), Slide Lecture Week 9 3/18 Spring Break Week 10 3/25 Class Pin-up (5), Guest Lecture Week 11 4/1 Class Pin-up (5, 6, 7), Slide Lecture Week 12 4/8 Class Pin-up (5, 6, 7) Week 13 4/15 Class Pin-up (7), Slide Lecture Week 14 4/22 Class Pin-up (7) / Desk Crits Week 15 4/29 Class (Studio Finals Week) Week 16 5/6 (Finals) Final Review (5, 6, 7) INTRO ASSIGNMENT: Found Typography By midnight, Sunday 9/7, email a PDF showing 3 examples of successful and beautiful use of typography with no more than a paragraph for each explaining your choice. Examples of typography can be found anywhere. Selected examples will be shown and discussed in class. (Please refer to ‘Formatting’ at the top of this page.) ASSIGNMENT 0: Kerning Typeset your fjrst and last name using a classical serif typeface, in all caps. Manually adjust the letterspacing in between the letters. The objective is to make the words appear balanced and evenly spaced. Center your name on a letter size sheet, landscape format. We will repeat this assignment over the course of several weeks, in tandem with other assignments. ASSIGNMENT 1: Abstract Composition Part of learning about graphic composition is teaching your eye to see both background and foreground at the same time. In addition, it is imperative to learn to see seemingly immaterial difference, edges, approximations, etc. This fjrst set of assignments will help us establish a basic language with which to discuss composition.

3 / 6 — Letter-sized, portrait orientation. Center 8×8” square on the page demarked by a 30% grey frame. — Place name and UNI on the upper left corner on every page. — If you are labeling the composition center the label 1” below the square using 12pt type. 1.1 Using the 8×8”square make 3 compositions using a number of 1×1” black squares. Without creating a regular pattern create a composition in which both black and white have equal strength, i.e. where foreground and background have equal prominence. You should avoid creating recognizable shapes or forms. 1.2 Using the same 8×8” square make 4 compositions just using a number of 1×1” black squares. The goal is to create different visual qualities using minimal means and to compose using the white space as much as the black. Please work with, and try to evoke abstractly, the following qualities, one for each composition: chaotic, powerful, orderly, serene . Label each composition as instructed above. ASSIGNMENT 2: Typographic Composition Typography has two basic functions, one hierarchical, the other expressive. Through the manipulation of typography a designer organizes a text and gives it voice. In addition, the arrangement of letters and words on a page has an aesthetic, compositional quality as did the shapes in assignment 1.0. Therefore where you put the words on a page makes a composition, and like all visual acts, composition has meaning in and of itself. Composition evokes certain emotions. This exercise is very basic. It is meant to make you look carefully at two phenomena: 1) how does the arrangement of words on a page color and shade a reader’s understanding of a text (expression), and 2) how can you make abstract, aesthetically interesting arrangements using typography (composition). Please work with the following two, quite different and very short stories from Franz Kafka. A Little Fable “Alas,” said the mouse, “the whole world is growing smaller every day. At the beginning it was so big that I was afraid, I kept running and running, and I was glad when I saw walls far away to the right and left, but these long walls have narrowed so quickly that I am in the last chamber already, and there in the corner stands the trap that I must run into.” “You only need to change your direction,” said the cat, and ate it up. Prometheus There are four legends concerning Prometheus: According to the fjrst he was clamped to a rock in the Caucasus for betraying the secrets of the gods to men, and the gods sent eagles to feed on his liver, which was perpetually renewed. According to the second Prometheus, goaded by the pain of the tearing beaks, pressed himself deeper and deeper into the rock until he became one with it. According to the third his treachery was forgotten in the course of thousands of years, forgotten by the gods, the eagles, forgotten by himself. According to the fourth everyone grew weary of the meaningless affair. The gods grew weary, the eagles grew weary, the wound closed wearily. There remains the inexplicable mass of rock. The legend tries to explain the inexplicable. As it comes out of the substratum of truth it has in turn to end in the inexplicable. 2.1 Create two compositions, one for each story, within an 8×8” frame. Please use the entire text, including title. You must limit your compositions to a single typeface (Arial) in a single size and weight: i.e. no bold, no italic, black and white only. The point is to subtly interpret the text, not illustrate it. Think of your compositions as both literary (reading) and visual (looking) objects.